She sighs and drops down into one of the kitchen chairs, staring at the knife embedded in the table. I look down at the note and shake my head, dropping down into the chair across from her.

I have no idea what the hell this note is about.

"It's complicated." She says, looking down at the table.

"Don't you, it's complicated me, Stephanie Michelle Plum. Notes like these are not nothing, they mean danger." I make my voice stern, the underlines of worry embedded in them. "How long has it been going on?" I level her an equally stern look.

She sighs, and doesn't look up."Three months." She mumbles so quietly I almost don't hear her. But I do.

Shock is the emotion those words bring..shock and worry. God I knew she had bad luck and a tendency to get herself in trouble and not tell anyone…but three months!?

"Three months….Stephanie why didn't you tell me? Or hell anyone." I can't help the feeling that I did something…I had to have done something, for her not to trust me enough to say anything.

Almost like she can tell what I was thinking she protests. "No it's not you're fault, Alex. I just..thought maybe the notes would stop if I ignored it."

I shake my head and sigh. "Have they? Or have they gotten worse? Steph you don't have as much protection as you used to, not after you returned all of Rangers trackers and bugs. You're not as easy to find now, if this creep took you. It would be hell to find you hell." I empathize the words, my point. Not to make her feel bad, but to make her understand. I won't lose my sister, even if I have to force my help on her.

She finally meets my eyes, I can see an array of emotions in hers. Regret, sorrow. All normal, I haven't had as many stalkers as her, not by any count but I have had a few and they are a bitch to deal with.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I just wanted to deal with it by myself.."

With that one sentence everything clicks. "Do..do you mean you didn't want a certain overprotective asshole to get involved? Because Steph it's not worth putting yourself in danger to avoid him. He gave you up, he has no right to involve himself in you're life anymore. Not if you don't want him to." I say, gently now. I understand her reasoning a little better, I don't agree with them, but I can understand, sympathize even.

She looks sheepish, maybe even a little embarrassed. "I know it was stupid, I just wasn't ready to see him yet and I knew if I told you he would find out and then he'd try to protect me which means he'll come around and I don't want that yet."

I send her a look of mock offense. "I would never have told him. But I understand."

She gives me a sassy look right back. "You would have told Lester, then Lester would have told Ranger and it would have got around to all the guys and then my apartment would have been overloaded with worried Rangman."

I purse my lips. "Okay that's fair, but I would have knocked Lester in the head for telling Ranger."

She cracks a smile. "I would pay to see that."

"Happens all the time, mostly when his excessive flirting goes overboard."

"Oh, but you like his flirting." She says, I know she's changing the subject but I'll let her for now.

"I do." I say with a nod. I really have started to like Lester, but with him being my partner, that I work with I don't know if that could add complications. So for now I've managed to stay just friends.

"I'm rooting for you two, despite you're "oh we can't do anything we're co-workers" thing I know you two would be awesome together. He already adores you, I can tell." She states all this matter of factly.

I send her a dry look, time to change subjects again. "I'll be staying here with you after work until this new stalker of your's is caught."

"What? No you don't have to do that!" She protests. Yeah I knew she wasn't gonna like the idea too much.

"I want to."

"Well…maybe I don't want you to want to." She shots back.

I sit back in my chair and cross my arms over my chest, staring her down. The one thing that is always easy, no matter how rude it seems is Steph will very easily back down after a few seconds of staring.

She just dosen't like it.

"Ugh! Okay..fine you can stay. But you get the couch."

"I'm fine with that." I stand up. "I'm going to make a few calls, then you're riding with me to collect some clothes and maybe a few more guns."

She stands as well. "I don't want more guns, I have my gun. It's loaded and everything."

I chuckle. "Yes well I'm glad you took my advice to carry you're gun, but I'm grabbing more anyways, better to be safe than sorry. Until I figure out the meaning of that note…well an eye for an eye, doesn't sound good because one of two things are gonna happen. One; you lose an eye or two; you lose you're life."

She pales when I mention losing an eye. "Is there no option three?" She says a little squeaky voiced.

"I am option three."

I step out into the hall and dial a number.

"Hello, sweetheart." Lester answers on the third ring.

"Hey. I have an issue, don't ask questions yet please. But I need a tracking device I can use on a car, not hooked to Rangeman my…friend doesn't want to be seen in our control room. And another one that can be worn." I lean against the wall, keeping an eye on my surroundings' can't be too careful.

There's a good fifteen seconds of silence on the other end. "...Who is this friend exactly?"

"I said no questions yet, Les. Can you get me some?"

He sighs. "Yeah, yeah I can get them, but you have some explaining to do after. You want me to swing them by you're place?"

"Thank you, and no Stephs." I wince a little, I hope that wasn't a dead giveaway.

"Give me an hour or so." He says, if he figured it out he isn't letting on just yet.

"Will do, thank you."

"No problem, Alex." The line clicks off.

I smile slightly and go back into Steph's apartment. "Ready to go?"

She stands up and grabs her bag. "Yeah..who did you call?"

"Help." I say. I sent a message to Erik, he'll be here later and so will Lester, but I'm not telling Steph that yet. She's gonna be a little mad when she finds out, well and so is Lester. But they'll both have to get over it.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

"ALEX!" Steph groans with a shout after Lester gets here, he stands in the doorway looking completely confused.

"Stephanie!" I say back, slight hints of sarcasm in my voice.

"You said you wouldn't tell him!" She huffs, sending me a glare.

"I never said a thing like that…and I didn't tell haim, you just did." I cross my arms and it back, I have doubt that Lester's picked up on what's happening by now.

She pauses. "What?" She ask's, dumbfounded.

"I didn't tell him the trackers I needed were for you, but you kinda made it obvious."

Lester walks over and lays a box on the table, looking between us. "You two ladies wanna tell me what's going on?"

"I second that." Erik says from the other side of the table. He got here moments before Les so I hadn't had the time to fill him in yet.

I pull the note and knife off the counter and lay it down. "Read the note first, then I'll explain it."

Erik picks the note up before Lester can and reads it quickly, his eyes widening as he does. "Is this for you?" He directs his attention to me.

"No." I take it from him and pass it to Lester.

He grabs it and reads it over, immediately looking at Steph when he's done. "Beautiful..what in the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

She sighs. "I don't know…the notes started randomly."

"Yeah three months ago." I inform them.

Lester whips his around to me, shocked. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

I send Steph a look. "She didn't tell me until today….well actually she didn't tell me, I found out."

She shrinks back in her seat. "Okay, okay I get it I should have told someone."

After that we plan, the trackers will be hooked to my phone so I can keep an eye on her all day and not have to worry. Erik, who has some old Marine buddies, is going to ask his friend Doyle to trail Steph during the day. I would have another Rangeman guy do that but Steph would make them too easily. And I've met Doyle before, he's a good guy. I trust him to watch over Steph.

When I'm not working I'll be looking into everything, hopefully I'll be able to find the person, but if not Steph is secured.

A/N: Hey! This is such a late update I know, I took a week trip to Indiana to see my great Grandpa, he's been really down lately so I didn't find the time to write up there. Now that I'm home I'm gonna start trying to update more. Hope you liked this chapter!

Have a good day/night everyone ~Abi